


Those Who Watch Over

by Merfilly



Series: Shuttle And Seeker [11]
Category: Transformers: Shattered Glass
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, M/M, Mirror Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2012-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-28 17:56:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Onslaught watches things come to a head</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Who Watch Over

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Domestic Abuse implications

Seekers, by and large, were a tactile class. Onslaught had noticed that the garish paint designs were just begging for others to reach out and touch the colors, at least from the way most of them pushed into wandering digits and brushed closer to those who stepped inside their fields. It was quite a difference from his own fliers; Blast Off was normally flinching from just the touch of fields on his hull, and Vortex was downright possessive of his rotors. Onslaught's amusement rose at that; more than once, he had offered to find a quiet spot so 'Tex could be alone with his rotors, setting the volatile intelligence agent off on a rant about how Onslaught could never understand the purity of his dedications.

The observation made Starscream stand out even more than his rather plain paint scheme already did. Very few were allowed to brush into the scientist's fields, whether by Starscream's own aversion, or careful interference from those who normally accompanied Starscream. That was another clue that things were not fully whole for Starscream, to Onslaught. Except for the scientist's time in his lab, the mech seemed to never be allowed to be alone. Even before the giant pain in the posterior transport had shown up, Onslaught had begun to worry that the scientist was a few data clusters shy of a working processor. Letting that tangle up with one of his own had been a hard call to make, one helped by talking to the Air Commander, Thundercracker.

Starscream was damaged goods, but the fact he kept fighting through it all made Onslaught more open to letting him come into their lives as Blast Off's chosen partner. It wasn't like the team didn't have a few chinks in their armor to overcome, after all.

Having made his choice, Onslaught watched uneasily as the detente between Starscream and Skyfire continued, with Blast Off the likely casualty in their power struggle. Only, Onslaught wasn't one to take anything laying down, and Skyfire was still smaller than Bruticus, with or without both arms.

`~`~`~`~`

"You belong to me." The words had not been quiet, so Onslaught didn't need to pretend to not being interested. He turned, as several in the dispensary grew uncomfortable at the emotional unease in the room. Some watched the showdown. Others got up to leave. The leader of the Combaticons stayed, glad that Blast Off was on a moon run with a team of scavengers. He hoped his shuttle was busy enough to not feel the turmoil boiling off his scientist partner.

"'Fire, don't start this here and now," Starscream told the transport, rising from the table they had been sharing.

Onslaught found himself standing up on the heels of Skyfire snapping a large hand out to catch Starscream's arm and hold him there.

"Star, you can't keep walking away!" Skyfire growled at him. "You have been mine since we were framed!"

Starscream opened his mouth, but Onslaught was already there, completely unintimidated by the transport class mech. "Last I looked, the new world order said nothing about slavery. Back off." Onslaught kept his voice level, even polite for some values of the word, but the blaze in his optics made it clear he just wanted an excuse to let his temper fly.

"Onslaught… " Starscream protested, a slight whine in his voice. "I can…"

Skyfire pushed up and into Onslaught's space before Starscream could finish his sentence. "You going to make me?"

"All three of you, take it out of here!" Shockwave thundered, brought in by one of those who had fled. The leader of the ground troops was making the transition over to security chief well, and was flanked by a set of his cheerfully colored drones. "This is a refueling area, not a forum for your love lives."

For a long moment, Onslaught and Skyfire held the stare-off, but then Starscream closed a hand on Skyfire's lower wing-edge.

"'Fire… we can talk about this," Starscream offered, and Onslaught ground his dentaplates to hear it. The scientist might have broken free and gone to his labs if Onslaught hadn't intruded. Now, the transport was going to get more time to twist the ember of Blast Off's chosen.

`~`~`~`~`

Onslaught made certain to be at the landing field when Blast Off commed he was coming in. He wasn't going to let his own come home to an empty field… and then he saw Starscream. There was fresh paint on fresh metal for one of his wings, making Onslaught want to growl and demand satisfaction of the glitch that had caused the injury. He started to walk over, to wait with Starscream, but something in the way the scientist stood, bold and defiant, held Onslaught back. He'd intruded the cycle before, and that meant the paint and patch job was very possibly Onslaught's fault in some ways.

He waited, holding back among the repair drones and supply bins on the landing field.

Blast Off did not waste much effort in his landing, having aimed for a final orbit and re-entry that bled off as much speed as he could, while withstanding the heat of his chosen angle. The small team of specialists he had taken, all civilian-based from the bowels of Polyhex, filed off in high spirits with carts of materials. Onslaught could hear them cheerfully thanking Blast Off, and had to smile, knowing that Blast Off would be both overjoyed to be remembered, and embarrassed by the attention.

Then the shuttle was transforming, and Onslaught had more pressing concerns than his friend's awkwardness in social settings. Blast Off was hesitating, but Starscream, to his credit, did not. Onslaught listened hard, knowing how softly both mechs talked.

"You're hurt," Blast Off said, ignoring his still tender heat shields to pull Starscream in, sharing the warmth of reentry with his lover.

"Not so much," Starscream told him in the gentlest voice he could muster, keeping the strident tones muted. "And never again."

The pair, who had begun to walk toward the city's entrance, paused as Blast Off looked at the scientist who had captured his ember.

"I told you I understood about Skyfire," he began, and Onslaught wished he could take that hurt out of his gestalt-mate's voice forever. Only Starscream truly had the ability though.

"Blast Off, Skyfire is leaving." Starscream's voice was clear. "I cannot be the mech he remembers. I don't want to be. I love you, and if he cannot accept that I chose you, that you chose me, he must go. For his own sake."

Onslaught could not help the swell of affection for the scientist, the respect he felt to know Starscream had made a true choice in the matter. From the way Blast Off pressed hard into Starscream's hold, and the flood of overwrought emotion in the gestalt link, his shuttle was just as grateful for the Seeker's choice.


End file.
